AS a follower of Rugby League, I must say that, generally, the coverage in the Star is excellent, particularly the space devoted to Saints' first team and the town's many talented amateur clubs.

However, there is one area in which both the Star, and, indeed Saints themselves, leave much to be desired. That is in the coverage of the Saints' Alliance and Academy teams.

While Denis Whittle often goes on at length - sometimes to the tune of 700 words or more and accompanied by three or four pictures - about first-team matches which, in some cases, have been played nearly a week previously, the excellent Alliance team merits three or four paragraphs at most and the Academy are lucky to get three or four lines!

For the most part, both sides are made up of local lads whose friends and relatives would be most interested to see them get a well-deserved mention in the local newspaper.

And now that the coach's column no longer appears, surely there is space to include more than a grand total of five paragraphs about the two teams which, hopefully, will provide the first-teamers of tomorrow.

John McConnell, Gerards Court, Moss Bank.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.